Thursday, 25 July 2013

TO GOOGLE IS HUMAN

By ‘Sola Fagorusi

Until
2001, the word Google meant nothing. Today, it is both a noun and a verb. My
computer does not underline it as a spelling error. The only remotely close
words to it – goggle and goggles means to stare wide-eyed and a protective eye
glass respectively. There is almost nothing that Google can’t search out. It’s
intriguing the even the word Google can be Googled! Google has conquered all
facets of our internet lives. It is the kingpin of the new media family. Anyone
today who uses the internet would have contact with one or several of Google
products.

The
list grows a little less fast than weeds! Chrome browser, Google Calender,
Google News, Google Maps, YouTube, Blogger, Picasa, Google+, Google Alerts,
Google Scholar, Google Groups, Google Trader, Gmail, Google Hangouts, Google
drive and others. The search engine which was Google’s first product and which
conferred name on the company, is the world’s most patronised. The King of the
internet is fast swallowing space in the technology sphere having its hands in
all pies. Students and researchers would remain indebted to this tool that has
changed the face of scholarship.

Google,
the company, today has web based products, operating systems like the Android
for Smart phones, hardware like the Nexus, desktop applications like the Google
toolbar and also mobile applications. Given the huge meta-data that Google has
to deal with on regular basis, it is today the biggest server company in the
world. With cloud technology catching up heavily on use now, this title may
hold for a very long time. Also trail blazing by Google is the Google Glass,
one of the most clairvoyant and far reaching advances in the new media age. It
is one of the few technologies merging strongly the activities of humans and
computers and it is currently on a lone journey with no known competitor – at
least known to the public.

Off
the record, Google is my best friend and I love the Google Doodles. Checking
them out has become more of a passive obsession. Trying to imagine what the
next one would be is also a game in itself. Then Google dedicated its doodle
last year to the victims of Nigeria’s Dana Air Flight 992 June 3rd
2012 crash in an empathetic public relations stunt. It is rational to ask if
our over-dependence on Google would not come at a cost some day. With Google as
a form of transactional memory which we rely on when the need is at hand, is
the human brain not becoming redundant? But then, there’s also the argument
that the brain now has access to more information in lesser time than it used
to previously. It is also not just about the memory, there’s also the issue of
refusing to keep our hard disks and memories chips busy with information
storage for later use when we are sure that all we need do is Google it when
next we need it. Humanity can only hope that the internet and Google holds for
as long as humans exist. To Google is human after all and possible not to
Google is silly! Google is human’s all-knowing and knowledgeable oracle. Definitely
more powerful than Paul the Octopus!

Soon,
I pre-empt that Google would be named the Parent of the Year! Young people
would seem to find their answers to life and living through Google. Except you
refuse to ask, that is only when Google would refuse to tell. The easy access
to the internet would mean easy access to Google as well. In well developed
environments, it would no longer count to know the address and location of a
friend’s place again as long as the friend can email or text the address to
you. Google Map would do the ‘magic’. May the day we can’t Google again never
come!

Google
is equally a sound test of fame. Does Google know you? If you attempt to search
your name and it auto fills, then the answer is yes. The very popular and
addictive website has become man’s most prominent artificial intelligence
amplifying the human cause and worth.
Like every other growing organisation, it has also had it shares of
failed products and discontinued ones. Google Buzz and more recently Google
Reader which was discontinued on July 1st, 2013 are some of the over 80
products. A number of them have been harmonised and formed into another product
and a couple of others have simply been rested in Google’s rich graveyard. Knowing
when to do this is one of Google’s strengths. Altavista which used to be a
rival to Google at conception has faded away. Others like Bing, MSN, Lycos,
Excite and Yahoo Search struggle to survive under the domineering shadow of
Google the search engine. Google, like other web platforms have had a number of
glitches and reverted quickly and given Microsoft’s Internet explorer a run for
its money with Google Chrome.

Google
has helped reduce unemployment in Nigeria and around the world. Anyone today,
irrespective of age can develop an android based app, put it up on Google Play
and earn from the downloads. Young people can also today put up blogs and sites
and earn from their contents when Google AdSense starts sending adverts their way. Its imprints in
Nigeria is also bold especially with the .ng extension allowing for platforms
like Google Trader which allows people list their products and services for
free in localised ways. In addition, it has also saved advertisement cost for
companies. Google is responsible for the upward surge in online advert
patronage through her effective system, knowing from the backend exactly who
wants what.

Google’s ChairmanEric Schmidtposits
that Google's aspiration ‘is to be your assistant, to know what you don't know
and to get that information to you in whatever way it is quickest.’ Founded byLarry
Pageand Sergey Brin while
still PhD students at Stanford University, it was initially called ‘Backrub’. The
domain name www.google.com was
registered in 1997 while Google as a company came to be in 1998. By 2012, the
company was already declaring annual revenue of about $50 billion mainly
through Google AdWords with monthly unique visitor of over 1 billion.

Already,
39% of the world’s population have internet access and it is predicted that
internet business will grow 10 times in the next three years. Google will have
a part to play in this and a commensurate profit share as well.

And
if you need to read this article a couple of years from now – Google it!